Bobby Martin, the author of The Hockey Stick Principles: The Four Key Stages to Entrepreneurial Success. He believes too many startup founders pivot way too early, quit too early, and expect rapid take off. Through his experience of starting and selling First Research, he's learned firsthand the challenges and solutions at each stage of entrepreneurial growth. Bobby’s currently the chairman and co-founder of Vertical IQ—a leading provider of sales research insight for banks. He's an angel investor and an active board member with several innovative startups including Local Eyesight, Boardroom Insiders, My Life Site, SageWorks and etailinsights. While he's a national speaker, he's still a hometown guy who focuses most of his investments in North Carolina where he's lived and worked.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Rework
• What CEO do you follow? – Brian Hamilton
• Favorite online tool? — Salesforce
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Be patient for a long journey

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces Bobby to the show
• 02:53 – First Research was launched in 1999
• 03:19 – Bobby had the exit before the bubble
• 03:31 – First Research provided profiles to sales and marketing professionals
• 03:51 – First Research is a SaaS business
• 04:11 – It took 7-8 years for Bobby to build First Research
• 04:42 – Bobby made the book because he loved the process
• • 05:09 – Bobby loved the journey
  • 05:26 – Bobby had a publisher and agent for the book
  • 06:00 – Bobby’s agent negotiated the deal with the publisher
  • 06:28 – Bobby’s book was just recently published
  • 06:41 – The average number of copies sold
  • 07:30 – Bobby shares what he thinks made the book sell
• 08:57 – Bobby is an angel investor
• 09:40 – Vertical IQ provides profile revenue to bankers
• 10:19 – The revenue model of Vertical IQ is similar to SaaS
• 10:30 – Vertical IQ gets paid upfront annually
• 10:43 – Average number of customers
• 10:55 – “We don’t charge per seat, we charge according to the number of bankers”
• 11:20 – Vertical IQ pre-sells to banks
• 12:05 – ACV is between $15-20K annually
• 12:28 – Average ARR
• 12:40 – Gross customer churn
• 13:25 – Average CAC
• • 13:34 – Vertical IQ is a sales driven company
  • 14:04 – Vertical IQ has a solid profit margin
• 14:55 – LTV
• 15:53 – Team size
• 16:40 – First year revenue
• 16:58 – 2015 total revenue
• 17:15 – Vertical IQ is self-funded
• 19:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Write a book—not because it’s convenient—write because you have something to share to the world.
• Requesting an upfront annual payment can have clear advantages over monthly payments.
• Be patient and do not get discouraged—the entrepreneurial journey takes time. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Spencer Farber. He is the CEO and founder of Cliently and he’s been in the industry for 10+ years working across many spaces. He discovered one thing—the constant pain for companies is to define creative ways to generate leads and THAT is what he’s trying to solve with Cliently.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Marc Benioff’s books
• What CEO do you follow? –  Mikita Mikado
• Favorite online tool? — Trello
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – People are going to throw curveballs and you just need to understand how to deal with them

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces Spencer  to the show
• 02:12 – Cliently helps a client engage with prospects
• 02:23 – A lead is only valuable if you’re able to do something with it
• 02:33 – Cliently is a SaaS model
• • 02:40 – Cliently’s subscription plans starts at $99 to $599 a month
• 02:50 – Average RPU
• 03:18 – There are clients who pay annually
• 03:45 – They currently have 70-80 customers
• 04:02 – Cliently is bootstrapped with $30K and friends and family with $75K
• 04:22 – Cliently was launched in February 2016
• 05:00 – Spencer shares about a client in Australia and how they are using Cliently
• • 05:20 – The client is BigReviewTV
  • 05:28 – Cliently creates custom campaigns for them
• 06:10 – “We are not trying to be a CRM but we are trying to put the pieces together that are essentially going to help engagement”
• 06:45 – Cliently is using different APIs
• 07:00 – Spencer is looking to partner with Bond.co in the future
• 07:21 – Spencer shares how Cliently is going to beat the “other guys” in their space
• 08:12  - Spencer wanted to raise capital
• 08:54 – Cliently is using multiple sources for their leads
• 09:49 – Cliently’s target MRR
• 09:58 – Spencer would raise $500K on an equity round
• • 10:30 – Spencer would give up 10-15% to get the target MRR
• 11:06 – Spencer shares how Cliently’s system is unique
• 11:34 – Team size
• 12:05 – Gross customer churn
• 13:05 – Team location
• 15:00 – The Famous Five
• 17:18 – Connect with Spencer through email

3 Key Points:

• A lead is only valuable if you’re able to do something with it.
• Stand out in your space—give your client more reasons to stick with you.
• If you have a dream, pursue it.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Spencer@Cliently.com – Spencer’s email address
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Darren Pierce. He’s the founder and CEO of eTailInsights. Prior to launching the business, he has spent many years working with B2B companies specializing in leadership, strategic development, client relationships, and maximizing revenue growth. Darren was the Director of Sales for First Research which was acquired by Hoover. Darren helped Bronto Software accelerate their revenue market share to become the leading email service provider in the ecommerce industry. He’s a graduate of The Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University with 2 BSBAs in Management and Marketing.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hockey Stick Principles
• What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
• Favorite online tool? — Buffer
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Darren wished that his 20-year old self could have been more patient

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:50 – Nathan introduces Darren to the show
• 02:35 – Darren didn’t want to leave Bronto Software, but he came up with the eTailInsights’ idea and couldn’t let it pass
• 02:53 – Darren joined Bronto, in 2008, to help sell their email marketing and make offers to online retailers
• • 03:25 – One of the early problems in Bronto was how to find the companies/retailers
• 03:47 – eTailInsights is a database that indexed the e commerce companies
• 04:03 – eTailInsights is a SaaS business
• 04:10 – Average MRR/ARR
• • 04:43 – The pay is manual upfront
• 04:48 – eTailInsights was launched in 2011
• 04:51 – Total 2015 revenue
• 05:15 – 2016 goal
• 05:50 – Average MRR
• 06:18 – Average churn is adjusted
• 06:50 – CAC
• • 07:29 -  eTailInsights’ average pay per click
• 07:48 – LTV
• 08:25 – eTailInsights has been tracking hundreds of thousands of retailer globally
• 08:36 – eTailInsights will start indexing next year
• 08:58 – Number of current companies is 3000
• 09:09 – The three biggest competitors of eTailInsights
• 10:08 – Exit is not Darren’s priority at the moment
• • 10:16 – Darren’s dream number is $100M
  • 11:18 – Darren wants to know how far his business can go
• 11:30 – eTailInsights is completely bootstrapped and they have $100K in it
• 12:06 – Current head count
• 12:20 – Average compensation
• 12:36 – eTailInsights’ location
• 12:52 – eTailInsights sourced their own data and they built their own tech
• 14:38 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• When you become predictable, you lose SO much leverage.
• If the idea of a business strikes you, go with that passion and just do it.
• Be patient—it takes patience to be a successful entrepreneur.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

James and Larry of Nexd.io. James is the founder and the Chief Stratgey Officer of Next.io and has previously worked with IBM, Socialware, SailPoint Techologies. He has studied at Berkeley and now builds softwares that help people everyday. Larry is the President and CEO of Nexd and is highly experienced in leadership and operations. 

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Peopleware (James)
• What CEO do you follow? –  Jeff Miller (Larry)
• Favorite online tool? — Clearbit (James)
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes (Larry)
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – James wished he built a network. Larry would tell himself that the most important thing is execution.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces James and Larry to the show
• 02:10 – Larry just joined Nexd and he’s the new CEO
• • 02:26 – Larry helps James build a business around the idea
  • 02:34 – Larry’s background is multiple CEO
• 03:35 – James shares why he brought Larry in
• 03:59 – Nexd was founded 14 months ago
• 05:23 – Nexd’s space is analytics
• • 05:45 – Nexd analyzes which emails are effective
• 05:55 – Nexd is currently on pre-revenue
• 06:00 – Nexd raised a million dollars on a seed round
• • 06:10 – It is a convertible note
  • 06:12 – Nexd did 2 convertible notes
• 07:10 – Larry discusses what he thinks about CEOs and founders not being on good terms in a company
• • 07:20 – Larry has been an advisor to VCs
  • 07:30 – Larry shares his advice to entrepreneurs
  • • 07:56 – Founders and CEOs should agree on who is going to drive the steering wheel
• 08:43 – Larry shares how he and James would represent the company in a sample article with TechCrunch
• 09:15 – Larry shares how they would resolve a possible disagreement in a seed round
• 10:17 – It was James’ own decision to get a CEO
• 10:48 – On the technical side, there is another co-founder
• 11:10 – “What Nexd is doing is going to be a game changer”
• 11:32 – Nexd targets sales manager and sales reps
• 12:58 – James and his co founder’s background is enterprise integration problems
• • 13:20 – “We’re trying to be a system of engagement for multiples systems of work”
• 13:43 – Target for Series A is $6-7M
• 14:08 – A minimal viable product is needed to step forward—a pilot that has been tested
• 15:50 – Nexd is not interested on a quick exit and they are going to be the next great company
• 17:50 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Choose someone who can do something you’re not good at and who you respect.
• Founders and CEOs should agree on who’s going to drive the steering wheel – if issues come up, own your mistakes and deal with it.
• You need a minimal viable product with validation from potential customers to move forward with your business. 

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Justin McGill. He’s an entrepreneur and owned a startup in 2008 when he started a digital agency. After he scaled that out, he launched LeadFuze – a B2B lead generation platform. He’s also the co-host of Zero to Scale Podcast which gives us a behind the scenes look at growing a startup with 200K per month in MRR.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Ultimate Sales Machine
• What CEO do you follow? –  Elon Musk
• Favorite online tool? — ZenPayroll which is now Gusto and bench.co
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Justin would’ve told himself that entrepreneurship was a path in life he could take

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:50 – Nathan introduces Justin to the show
• 02:15 – LeadFuze is a software platform
• • 02:21 – LeadFuze allows to you to search for contact information and automate the outreach to ideal and prospective customers—turning them into possible sales opportunities
• 02:35 – LeadFuze is a subscription-based company
• 02:55 – Average MRR is $175
• • 03:08 – Early stage companies are using LeadFuze
• 03:25 – Average number of customers
• 03:45 – LeadFuze started off completely  bootstrapped and had a small raise of $150K
• • 03:56 – Two of three investors are Rob Walling of Drip and David Hauser of Grasshopper
• 04:26 – Justin shares why he decided to take capital
• 04:43 – Justin did a small equity round
• 06:10 – If you’re trying to grow your sales, LeadFuze can help you
• 06:43 – LeadFuze is web-based
• 07:00 – LeadFuze wants to focus exclusively on lead generation
• 07:24 – LeadFuze is a software with a service
• 08:14 – Gross customer churn and revenue churn
• • 08:35 – “Customers stay for 6 months or so”
• 09:15 – Why not just charge $175 upfront?
• • 09:31 – LeadFuze is currently a product company without engineering help
  • 09:47 – Justin is trying to look for a CTO
• 10:58 – Justin shares why his CTO left
• 11:57 – Current team size on remote
• • 12:18 – About to open an office in Phoenix, AZ
• 12:30 – LeadFuze has 3 co-founders, one who was Justin’s sales coach
• 13:55 – CAC
• • 14:05 – Around $300
• 14:28 – Justin invested in content and that is what driving the signups at the moment
• 14:50 – LeadFuze offers 20 leads for free
• • 15:02 – 8.5% of the signups convert from free trial to paid
  • 15:10 – Free trial doesn’t require a credit card
• 15:40 – Total 2015 revenue
• • 15:50 - LeadFuze started totally free
  • 16:11 – Average total cash flow by the end of 2015 is around $250K
• 16:45 – Some of the sources where LeadFuze pulls data are from ClearBit, Full Contact, and Tower Data
• 17:23 – Hit Justin up on Twitter
• 18:55 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• As a startup, the pay-as-you-go model may be more beneficial than subscription plans.
• Entrepreneurs need to be more open about their people leaving.
• Don’t waste time and TAKE the leap as early as you can.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• ClearBit, Full Contact, and Tower Data Where LeadFuze pulls its data
• @Jus10McGill – Justin’s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Mark Godley. He has held leadership positions at technology companies of all different sizes from pre-revenue to publicly traded. He’s best known for driving revenue and outpacing industry growth while rejecting herd mentality. Outside of work, Mark finds time daily to read, work-out, and cook—all the while, being an engaged father, spouse, and citizen.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Devil in the White City
• What CEO do you follow? –  Henry Schuck and Yonatan Stern
• Favorite online tool? — Flipboard, Stitcher, GaggleAMP and Lead Forensics
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Living below your means gives you tons of options. Think about the life you want at age 50 and work backwards. We’re running a marathon not a sprint, and it takes planning, sacrifice and resilience and then, don’t define success and happiness by your paycheck”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces Mark to the show
• 02:25 – HG Data is in a competitive and intelligent space
• • 02:35 – HG Data build data sets, used by sales and marketing teams, to do precision targeting at scale
• 03:05 – The founder founded HG Data in 2012 after an exit
• 03:43 – Mark is the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at HG Data
• • 04:02 – Mark handles all the market phasing for the company
• 04:31 – When HG Data was founded it served the enterprise space
• • 04:49 – Last year is when they started to go down market
  • 04:58 – Number of enterprise clients is 15-20 with 6-figure ARR
  • 05:15 – HG Data had traditional customers, as well, that totaled 50
  • 05:58 – HG Data transitioned from a data company to a product company
  • 06:12 – Total ASP
• 06:50 – HG Data wants to increase the customer base, but lower the RPU
• • 07:56 – HG Data created a use-space specific databases
• 08:19 – HG Data tries to keep the balance of enterprise and down market pricing
• • 08:34 – 50% of the revenue is from direct clients and 50% is from the partners
• 09:22 – Mark shares what he is worried about in regards to their target
• 10:09 – Mark shares how their partners use their data
• 10:55 – Average pay per user annually
• 12:05 – There are 10-50 OEMs in the customer base
• 12:37 – Average number of customers
• 13:00 – Mark only follows ARR and not MRR
• 13:27 – Mark shares that they are focused on building the new space—they are currently spending and losing money by design, but hoping for a positive cash flow
• 14:00 – Gross annual customer churn is less than 10%
• • 14:30 – “We’ve had one 6-figure churn in the last 4 years”
• 14:40 – CAC
• 15:23 – “We’re looking for a more high-velocity sales model”
• 16:13 – The company is based in Santa Barbara, where they have 80 employees
• 16:42 – Connect with Mark through Twitter and LinkedIn
• 18:40 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• “We’re running a marathon, not a sprint, and it takes planning, sacrifice, and resilience.”
• Be mindful of your partners BEFORE making decisions.
• Live without regrets.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• @Mgodley21 – Mark’s Twitter handle
• LinkedIn – Mark’s LinkedIn account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dominik Vacikar. He is currently an Associate at Hummingbird VC, but was previously the co-founder of Spaceship and some other startups, including Growth at Nestpick. Listen as Dominik gives us an inside look at the workings of Spaceship and why he was chosen by Hummingbird for a very specific task. 

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Zero to One
• What CEO do you follow? –  N/A
• Favorite online tool? — Stripe
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Dominik wishes he wasn’t so hard on himself, so long as he was progressing

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:35 – Nathan introduces Dominik to the show
• 02:00 – Spaceship started as a side project when Dominik had their lead generation tool in social media
• 03:02 – Dominik shares how Spaceship works
• • 03:18 – Spaceship searches your entire target audience and provides you with prospect data
• 03:35 – Spaceship is pay-as-you go
• 03:51 – 10% of Spaceship’s customers are on a monthly plan
• 04:10 – Spaceship was launched in October 2015
• 04:30 – 2015 revenue
• 04:55 – Current total revenue
• 05:12 – Dominik shares why he turned to Hummingbird
• 06:33 – Spaceship was bootstrapped
• 06:52 – Spaceship’s current team size
• 07:20 – Dominik has been with Hummingbird for 2 months
• 07:30 – Hummingbird wants Dominik to build a radar for startups
• • 07:54 – The radar will track interesting companies and identify them
• 08:29 – Dominik shares how their product is different from Crunchbase
• 09:31 – Dominik shares the variables they use to identify the startups
• 10:30 – The current biggest problem is updating the data as frequently as possible
• 11:45 – Hummingbird is good at identifying the funders’ DNA
• 12:08 – Hummingbird’s main area of expertise
• 13:00 – Hummingbird might be interested in a Series A
• 13:21 – Hummingbird’s ARR target
• 14:05 – Nathan asks Dominik about Spaceship’s founder
• 14:37 – Dominik is active on Twitter and LinkedIn
• 16:10 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Growth comes in many forms—sometimes from within your own company or from the help of others.
• Develop your expertise by drawing knowledge from other fields and markets.
• Your progress determines your future and YOU set the pace.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• @chichikid – Dominik’s Twitter handle
• LinkedIn – Dominik’s LinkedIn account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Darian Shirazi. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Radius. He was an early employee at Facebook and worked on the” Sell Your Item” Team at eBay. He’s founded, invested, and advised many successful technology companies. Prior to starting Radius, Darian studied Computer Science and Philosophy at UC Berkeley. He’s also a prominent keen speaker at Top of Technology Innovation.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Essays of Warren Buffet
• What CEO do you follow? –  Marc Benioff
• Favorite online tool? — Yesware
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “How much harder building the business is  than you originally thought and how once you get to scale how amazing it feels.”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 – Nathan introduces Darian to the show
• 02:15 – Darian shares about his time with Facebook
• • 02:30 – Darian’s favorite project on Facebook was Facelift
• 02:45 – Darian shares what he thinks of Mark Zuckerberg
• 03:30 – Darian can’t think of a time when Mark was at odds with another team member
• 03:58 – Radius is about growing pipelines for B2B marketers
• • 04:08 – The customers are typically enterprise and mid-market businesses
  • 04:15 – Radius fixes data 
  • 04:30 – Radius’ services
• 04:48 – The whole foundation of the product starts with the Radius business graph
• 05:17 – Darian shares how they help the client
• 05:40 – Darian shares how Radius is different with CB Insights
• • 05:50 – Radius’ data is powered by their customers which allows them to access their CRMs
  • 06:20 – The activity data allows Radius to improve their data
  • 06:50 – Radius doesn’t rely on publicly available data
• 07:30 – Radius was founded in 2011 and launched in 2013
• 08:00 – Average number of customers
• • 08:30 – It is not really a seat model
  • 09:10 – Radius has a used cased expansion
• 09:41 – Team size is currently 150 people
• 10:00 – Radius has currently raised $100M
• • 10:25 – Radius still has a lot of net capital left
  • 10:42 – Radius’ retention for enterprise customers is around 93%
• 10:50 – Gross monthly customer churn
• 11:24 – Darian shares what drives their revenue
• • 11:48 – Radius’s implementation day is only 18 days so customers see the value quickly
• 12:11 – Radius’ pricing
• 12:23 – ACV
• 13:00 – First year revenue
• 13:25 – Darian has 2 co-founders
• 14:07 – Radius requires a team
• • 14:28 – Darian hired people from enterprise companies
• 15:00 – Darian shares Radius’s CAC to LTV ratio
• • 15:36 – Radius’s sales cycle
  • 15:52 – “Customer trust is our number one value”
  • 16:50 – It is difficult to measure CAC to LTV when enterprise companies rely on big  events for marketing

• 17:53 – Radius’s growth rate
• 19:14 – Radius’ marketing budget
• 19:29 – The amount Radius spends on Dreamforce
• • 20:27 – Dreamforce is an incredible way to grow a pipe

• 20:40 – Is Radius going to be the next Benioff’s acquisition?
• 21:48 – Darian shares how Microsoft has been an incredible partner for Radius
• 22:36 – The last funding
• 23:05 – Darian discusses Radius’ future
• 23:40 – Follow Darian at Twitter and email him
• 25:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• It takes a great team to create a great product.
• Take what you’ve learned from your last employer, be grateful for it, and leave graciously.
• Acquisition requires planning, an exchange of ideas, and thorough researching.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Ceo@Radius.com – Darian’s email address
• @Darian314 – Darian’s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Tim Saumet. He is the CTO of the company called Tilkee – a SaaS solution software for business proposals, follow ups, and sales process tracking. It is a super hot space. Before that, he was involved with OXFOC Technologies as the CEO. He is also a Manager of General Services in another company and a Project Manager at Travel Due.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? –100 Conseils Pratiques Pour Couler sa Boite
• What CEO do you follow? –  Bruno Bonnell and Elon Musk

• Favorite online tool? — Zapier
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— “Yes” for Kate and “No” for Tim
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Tim would have focused more on personal development

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:37 – Nathan introduces Tim to the show
• 02:13 – Kate is developing the European market
• 02:30 – Tim used to be a salesman and it was difficult for him
• 03:03 – Tilkee is a simple SaaS software to analyze a prospect’s behavior
• 03:30 – Tilkee works with any kind of document
• 03:50 – Tilkee started as a side project 3 and a half years ago
• 05:00 – First year revenue was $20K
• 05:15 – Tilkee is currently serving 800 customers
• 05:41 – Average customer pay per month
• 06:20 – December 2015 MRR
• 07:30 – Tim started with small companies, then progressed to enterprise companies
• 08:05 – Tim pivoted the product and customer base
• 08:12 – Tim raised, 2 years ago, a million and a half dollars
• 08:34 – Tim is thinking of raising more next year
• • 09:08 – Tim won’t go to a typical Series A round
  • 09:35 – Employees have a part of the equity
• 10:15 – Tim wants a raise, but would still want more than 50% of the company
• 10:37 – Typical valuation in Europe
• 11:15 – Gross monthly customer churn
• 12:00 – Kate shares how they find their enterprise deals
• 13:22 – Tilkee is not doing an e-signature but a u-sign from the European market
• 14:14 – A customer lifetime value
• 14:45 – Average CAC
• 15:45 – Tilkee has an advertisement in one of the biggest French radio stations
• 16:20 – Current team size is 20 and 15 from them are salespeople
• 16:42 – Tim shares the stack they have built Tilkee on
• 17:15 – Kate is currently using Pipedrive to drive Sales
• 18:35 – Find Tilkee on Twitter and Facebook
• 20:19 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• You CAN solve your own problems—you just need to do the work of finding solutions.
• Raising capital is always an option to take that next step forward for your business.
• Meditation is a great avenue for personal development.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan kept his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it at the airplane’s back seat pocket
• @TilkeeUs – Tilkee’s Twitter handle
• Facebook – Tilkee’s Facebook account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Steve Richard whose mission in life is to help as many sales professionals as possible to become wildly successful. He has been featured in numerous publications including The Harvard Business Review, The Washington Business Journal, and The Washington Post. Outside of work, Steve enjoys scuba diving, skiing, running, and people-watching. He’s from Arlington, VA, with his wife Ellen and their 4 kids all under the age of 7.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – RSVP Selling
• What CEO do you follow? –  Tony Bates

• Favorite online tool? — Owler
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “You got to start with the technology company in the beginning because you’re going to create much more impact on people’s lives”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:58 – Nathan introduces Steve to the show
• 02:45 – Steve shares the idea of ExecVision
• 03:17 – ExecVision is a SaaS business
• • 03:20 – There are 50 organizations who are currently using ExecVision
• 03:34 – ExecVision allows you to access, analyze, and share call records
• 04:20 – Average pay per user per year and how it ranges per sales person
• 04:54 – Average MRR
• 05:24 – Sales professionals love ExecVision
• 06:04 – ExecVision has coaching requests for their customers
• 06:37 – Every month there’s a high volume of requests for coaching
• 07:13 – ExecVision has voice recognition
• 07:52 – Richard shares how their customers find valuable keywords in ExecVision
• 09:15 – Richard was running Vorsight before ExecVision
• • 09:50 – People pay per meeting
  • 10:02 – Richard used the profitability of Vorsight to fund ExecVision
• 10:15 – Richard has raised capital for ExecVision
• 10:58 – Richard shares what drives them
• 11:38 – They have raised around $1M
• 11:50 – Richard acquired ExecVision in April, 2015
• 12:07 – None of the original people from ExecVision are still working with the company, but they have equity
• 12:26 – Retention is 90% annually 
• 13:38 – CAC
• 14:42 – Total head count is 15
• 14:55 – ExecVision is based in Arlington, Virginia
• 15:27 – First year revenue
• 16:08 – Connect with Richard through Call Camp
• 18:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Use your stress to CREATE an idea to relieve that stress.
• Sales professionals who analyze and assess feedback well WILL improve in their field.
• Make something that adds value to people’s lives.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it in the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Call Camp – Steve’s Call Camp Movement website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Alex Babin. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has more than 10 years of expertise in innovation, product development and artificial intelligence. He started his first hybrid vehicle company at the age of 24 funded by DFJ. He also founded an interactive video software company. Now, he’s running an artificial intelligence, communication startup which is building a device-centric, secured, corporate email client called Zero.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Steve Jobs
• What CEO do you follow? – Mark Daniels

• Favorite online tool? — HubSpot
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Trust your intuition”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:45 – Nathan introduces Alex to the show
• 02:23 – Alex loves listening to podcasts
• 02:53 – Zero is currently on pre-revenue, but they have a list of pre-sales
• 03:12 – Zero is focused on the corporate market
• • 03:28 – Zero helps people be more productive with the help of AI
• 03:38 – Zero charges per user per month on the corporate market
• 03:48 – Zero was launched 2 years ago, was in self-mode for 1 year, and launched the first version a year ago
• 04:00 – Zero had a seed round, in May, from angel investors
• 04:41 – Zero has 3 founders and a total of 6 on the team
• 05:19 – The one who will win the space in the market is the one who will penetrate the market with the most convenient product for the customer
• 05:33 – Customers don’t want to change anything – they have strict security policies
• 07:15 – Zero has 30,000 downloads
• • 07:30 – 2,000 active daily customers
  • 07:37 – Alex shares the difference between daily and monthly active customers
• 08:55 – Zero has recently introduced exchange support
• 09:28 – Zero currently targets CIOs
• 09:48 – Zero’s pricing
• 10:10 – Alex shares that they are open to another seed round
• • 10:19 – Target to raise is $1M
  • 10:22 – Convertible note CAP of $5M
  • 11:00 – Some of the customers are converting into investors
• 11:38 – Find Alex on Twitter
• 13:05 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• The one who wins the market is the one who penetrates the market with the best and most convenient product for the consumer.
• Be patient and respectful with your customers when explaining your product.
• TRUST your intuition—it’s often the right direction to follow.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan kept his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it at the airplane’s back seat pocket
• @AlexBabin – Alex’s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Shawn Livermore. He’s an author and technology consultant and more recently, the founder and CEO of tech startup Ziptask which has generated nearly $2M in revenue. He has raised 4 rounds of funding and closed it down to take on new opportunities.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Tipping Point
• What CEO do you follow? –  Mark Fields

• Favorite online tool? — Acuity Scheduling
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Calculate risk carefully”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 02:00 – Nathan introduces Shawn to the show
• 02:30 – Ziptask is a fully-managed outsourcing with a progressive effort to fix the problem of outsourcing technology projects
• 03:23 – “We succeeded in the goal, but we failed as a company”
• 03:31 – Shawn raised 4 seed rounds
• 04:18 – Shawn also had his day-time clients as a technology consultant
• 04:50 – Ziptask dissolved in September 2016, and was launched in 2010
• 05:05 – Ziptask’s MRR was $107K
• 05:30 – Shawn shares why they shut down Ziptask
• • 06:59 – Shawn launched Ziptask prematurely
  • 08:35 – Shawn also did NOT try to sell the business
• 09:30 – Shawn is now working with Carvana
• 10:00 – Connect with Shawn through Twitter. Medium and email
• 10:15 – Shawn is currently working on a book called Obscurity
• 12:45 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• The time will come when you have to pull the plug – and when it happens, just do it.
• Reaching your goal is NOT the peak of success.
• Calculate risk carefully.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf – Jamf helped Nathan kept his Macbook Air 11” secure even when he left it at the airplane’s back seat pocket
• Carvana – Shawn’s current employer
• @shawnypants – Shawn’s Medium handle
• @shawnypants – Shawn’s Twitter handle
• ShawnLivermore@gmail.com – Shawn’s email address
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Guy Suter and he runs Notion.ai. His mission is to improve communication using artificial intelligence. Previously, he co-founded BitLeap and led the product to the world’s top selling appliance after 2008 acquisition by Barracuda. He started venture data backup, cloud storage, group chat, file sharing with Copy.com and CRM with Nutshell.com

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Brand New World
• What CEO do you follow? – Jay Simons

• Favorite online tool? — Picasso
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “How early stage capital works...and influence management has been the biggest learning experience”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:35 – Nathan introduces Guy to the show
• 02:10 – Guy and his co-founder started with a data backup company
• 02:46 – Notion.ai is currently on prerevenue
• 03:00 – Notion.ai started 3 years ago
• 03:47 – Notion.ai was launched in November 2016
• 04:18 – Digital communication was problematic
• 04:55 – Notion.ai has raised a total of around $10M
• 05:13 – Guy started with a lot of SaaS businesses
• 06:13 – Guy shares the revenue opportunities for Notion.ai
• 08:00 – There’s a huge barrier in entry to Notion.ai’s space
• 09:00 – Guy discusses the companies that are trying to make another category
• 09:40 – Notion.ai is beneficial to everyone who uses email to interact
• 10:40 – “Our goal is not to make the best email app In the world”
• • 11:00 – Notion.ai has features that differentiate them from others and offer value
  • 11:10 – Notion.ai is more “people-centric”; the focus is on relationships and what’s important based on the message
• 11:43 – Average number of downloads
• • 12:09 – Notion.ai helps clean-up inboxes quickly
  • 13:00 – Less than a million but more than tens of thousands of downloads
  • 13:39 – The number of downloads consistently grows daily
• 13:55 – Team size and location
• • 14:20 – Guy shares why they chose Michigan
  • 15:50 – Notion.ai has someone that was from LinkedIn
• 16:00 – Connect with Guy through Twitter
• 17:30 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• The digital communication space has been problematic and we need a solution.
• Raising big capital on pre-revenue IS possible, if you have a great product that helps people become more efficient in communicating.
• Have patience, take time, focus on building the right culture, and get your team on board.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• @GuySuter – Guy’s Twitter handle
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Nathan Barry, CEO of ConvertKit – an email marketing company for professional bloggers. Listen as Nathan shares how he manages to stay self-funded while, at the same time, increasing the growth and bloggers’ interest in using ConvertKit.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Predictable Success
• What CEO do you follow? –  N/A

• Favorite online tool? — Workable
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Pick just one thing you love to do and do it really well

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:50 – Nathan introduces Barry to the show
• 02:15 – ConvertKit is a SaaS company and has around 10,000 bloggers
• 02:47 – ConvertKit’s pricing depends on the blogger’s subscribers count
• 03:04 – Average revenue per user per month
• • 03:24 – 65% of the users are on $48/month plan
• 03:48 – ConvertKit’s cash flow is doing well
• 04:15 – Annual plan has a big impact on churn
• 04:50 – Barry pushes the annual plan on Cyber Monday
• • 05:00 – Average annual plan total
• 05:30 – ConvertKit had a free 1 month promotion for new users
• 05:56 – ConvertKit has a 40K email list – half of it is from content marketing, the other half is from webinars
• • 06:30 – ConvertKit has added 25K new people in their list this year from joint webinars alone
  • 06:55 – Barry is using Google Hangout and Chatroll for the webinars
  • 07:20 – ConvertKit is doing 10-20 webinars a month
• 07:53 – There are 2 people in Barry’s team who are involved in the webinar process
• • 08:28 – The team is trying to get people who use MailChimp or Aweber to switch to ConvertKit
  • 08:38 – It is a 2-step direct sales process
• 09:54 – Barry shares how he mitigates the show up rate in their webinars
• 10:54 – Some of the bloggers reach out to ConvertKit and some find them through other bloggers
• 11:16 – Average expenses a month in affiliate payouts
• • 11:33 – A quarter of ConvertKit’s revenue comes from affiliate programs
• 12:10 – 2015 total revenue is around $300K
• 12:20 – 2016 average revenue
• 12:34 – ConvertKit is self-funded
• • 12:44 – It was an intentional choice
  • 13:03 – Barry shares what he did when they were almost running out of funds
• 14:15 – ConvertKit’s gross profit and total money in the bank
• 14:38 – ConvertKit just had a big expense from the annual plan switch
• 15:15 – Gross monthly customer churn
• 16:15 – Expansion is ConvertKit’s next focus
• 17:08 – Current CAC
• 18:28 – Team size and location
• 18:50 – Average headcount expenses
• 19:14 – ConvertKit was launched in 2013
• 20:18 – There are two advisers who have a share in the company
• 20:45 – Connect with Nathan through ConvertKit and his website
• 23:20 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• You can stay self-funded with a fast growing business and by managing your funds properly.
• Joint webinars and 2-point direct sales are excellent options to increase mailing list.
• Pick one thing you love to do, focus in, and do it really well.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• ConvertKit.com – Barry’s business website
• NathanBarry.com – Barry’s personal website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Kyle Racki, co-founder and CEO of Proposify. He’s passionate about design, SaaS, and marketing. He loves jamming out to 90s covers/tunes at open mic nights, and also has the unique ability to work in perfectly, cromulent Simpsons’ references to any conversation.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Lean Analytics
• What CEO do you follow? –  Alex Turnbull

• Favorite online tool? — Heap Analytics
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Sometimes
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “That it’s all going to be okay and…I’m going to give myself a hug”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Kyle to the show
• 02:24 – Proposify is a SaaS business and it helps people streamline their sales and close more deals
• 02:40 – Average customer pay per month is $40-$50
• 02:53 – Current number of customers
• 03:10 – Average MRR
• 03:25 – Proposify was launched in 2013
• • 03:35 – Proposify had less than $1000 MRR for 17 months
  • 04:03 – Kyle and his co-founder had an agency
  • 04:22 – Kyle raised $250K in seed capital from a local investor
  • 04:39 – Kyle and his team’s pay is around $60K a month during that time
• 05:40 – Team size is 15 and are located in Halifax, Canada
• • 06:20 – Kyle shares how the startup market is in Halifax
  • 06:50 – Known startup companies from Halifax
• 07:24 – Kyle does weekly phone calls with customers to check in on them
• 07:50 – Kyle shares how one of their customers beat VaynerMedia in a proposal
• 09:15 – How Proposify creates proposals in a flash
• 09:40 – Proposify’s competition
• 10:04 – Proposify is more focused on the digital agency space
• 11:25 – Average number of new customers per month
• 11:50 – Proposify has a free and no-credit card sign-up
• 12:00 – Proposify does inbound sales, but organic search is the biggest source of traffic
• 12:43 – Best podcast that drives Proposify’s traffic
• 13:05 – Proposify has a general marketing budget
• • 13:28 - $10K for paid marketing
• 13:45 – CAC is quite low
• 14:18 – LTV
• 14:40 – Gross monthly customer churn
• 15:00 – Proposify currently has 2 sales people
• 15:35 – Other system Kyle uses for business intelligence is Heap Analytics
• 16:16 – Total 2015 revenue is $551K
• 17:11 – Proposify is profitable and continually growing
• 18:30 – “We’ll always entertain acquisition offers if it makes sense”
• 19:00 – The process Kyle will go through if there’s a possible acquisition
• 19:47 – Number of Proposify’s developers
• 20:00 – Connect with Kyle through their website and help Kyle look for Proposify.com’s owner and he’ll pay you
• 22:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• There’s a temptation to spend VC money; be decisive when you want to raise capital and stick to your goals.
• Organic traffic is good, but getting paid marketing can still drive more traffic and customers.
• There are a lot of things to consider in an acquisition – it should match your personal goals, be a cultural fit, and the numbers need to make sense.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• Proposify.biz – Kyle’s business website
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Ivan Mojsilovic, CEO and founder of Yanado.com – a teamwork collaboration tool that will truly change the way you work. He’s also the CEO of E-75 IT Services, a project manager, and a media man who did a small stint at STARTeurope. He’s very active in the startup space.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – n/a
• What CEO do you follow? –  Jason Lemkin

• Favorite online tool? — Slack
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Move out my current city and go travel, travel the world”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 – Nathan introduces Ivan to the show
• 02:17 – Yanado is a project management tool integrated into Gmail
• 02:40 – Yanado is SaaS business
• 02:54 – Average customer pay per year is around $3000
• 03:30 – Ivan has been in SaaS industry
• 04:09 – Ivan shares how they started Yanado
• 04:28 – Yanado started in 2014
• 04:40 – Total capital raised is $200K and currently fundraising
• • 05:09 – Goal for the current fundraising is $500K in equity round
  • 05:20 – Willing to give up 15% to 20% equity
• 05:30 – Yanado is based in Eastern Europe
• 05:40 – Ivan shares about the market in Eastern Europe
• 06:10 – Ivan shares what happened to their first business
• • 06:30 – The business was doing €200K a year
• 07:05 – Yanado’s average number of paying customers is a little under 100
• 07:15 – Average MRR
• 07:45 – Team size
• 08:10 – Number of total users
• 08:23 – Ivan shares how their customers find them
• 09:00 – Gross monthly churn is 7%
• 09:21 – Average customer stay is 14 months
• 10:05 – Ivan does the inside sales for Yanado and they just hired a person are planning to do outbound sales
• 10:40 – Ivan’s plans for the company
• 10:59 – Ivan hopes Google will acquire them
• 11:45 – As of the moment, Ivan will only sell Yanado for $10M and no less than that
• • 12:00 – Ivan shares how he will sell Yanado to Google
• 13:00 – Ivan shares how Google can’t create something similar to Yanado
• 13:54 – Follow Ivan on their blog, sales and discussion groups
• 16:00 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

• Find a way to help people focus their tasks and make life easier.
• Create a software that is unique and cannot easily be imitated.
• When you’re young and if you can, leave your city and travel the world.

Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip – Nathan uses Drip’s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox  – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens and follow-up with email sequences
• Blog – Ivan’s blog
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives